Optical character recognition (OCR) systems convert images such as numerals, letters, and symbols into formats typically used by a computer. For example, an OCR system can scan a page having typed alphanumeric characters and produce ASCII codes corresponding to the characters. During a typical scan, image data, such as gray scale pixel data, for a document can be optically captured. Then image data for each character on the page can be processed to identify the characters and provide their corresponding character codes. The character codes can be passed to a computer application, such as a spreadsheet or word processing application, for further use.
One need in OCR is the ability to consistently obtain coherent data independent from the way in which the scanned subject is presented. For example, a user may input a page rotated 180 degrees from the expected input direction, which would cause the page to be scanned upside down. A conventional scanner will try to interpret the characters so scanned, without an efficient determination as to the orientation of the page.
There remains a need for an OCR system that automatically determines the orientation of a scanned page, particularly without adversely impacting scanning efficiency, and that incorporates correct orientation determination into scanning results.